HOSPITAL EXPANDS FOR FUTURE.

Byline: EUGENE TONG  Staff Writer

GLENDALE -- Within a decade, a 500-bed hospital north of the Ventura Freeway will be ready to cope with the aches and pains of a fast-growing aging population.

At least that's what Warren Tetz, senior vice president of operations at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, envisions.

With the city's largest hospital near capacity and a rising median age expected to bring still more patients, officials have embarked on a three-part expansion that would boost the number of beds to 508 from about 445.

``If our current growth remains at the rate it has been, that tower will be completely full four to five years after we open it,'' Tetz said in an interview last week.

Glendale's population will grow steadily to about 221,800 by 2030 from about 205,000 now, according to the Southern California Association of Governments.

And the population is getting older. According to census figures, the city's median age between 1990-2000 jumped three years to 37, and senior city planner Jeff Hamilton expects it to hit 40 by 2030.

All this adds up to a surge in health care needs in the next decade as more baby boomers reach retirement age -- a time when a person requires three to five times the care as someone in their 40s or 50s, Tetz said.

``And that's only going to continue to explode,'' he said. More than half of the patients staying at the hospital last week were 65 or older -- with a third more than 80 years old.

The first phase -- a seven-story, $108 million patient tower -- is expected to open early next year. Phase two includes an inpatient radiology department and an access road through the hospital complex. Two buildings now used as offices -- one from 1955 and another from 1974 -- will be demolished.

The third phase, which has yet to be funded, involves building a second patient tower on the former site of the two buildings.

Other hospitals are also planning for the spike in elderly patients.

Leonard LaBella, chief executive officer at Verdugo Hills Hospital, which has 158 beds, said the hospital was researching future capacity based on patient needs and funds available to meet costly state-mandated earthquake retrofitting.

``If we can be smarter about the rooms we build in the future and the capability that can be built into that, I think everybody comes out the winner,'' LaBella said.

LaBella said Verdugo's construction budget ranged from $6 million to $10 million, but groundbreaking would not begin before 2010.

Glendale Memorial Hospital is working on plans to retrofit its structures containing 330 beds, according to Bob Quarfoot, vice president of development for the hospital.

eugene.tong(at)dailynews.com

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Construction on the fifth floor of the Glendale Adventist Hospital is shown here. The hospital's expansion will boost capacity as the city's population ages.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer